Herald Journal,
March 31, 2003

Columbine survivor to speak in Winsted

It takes an extraordinary person to take a tragedy like
the Columbine shootings and turn it into something positive.

Lauren Bohn, 19, now of Hutchinson, has been able to do
just that.

Through speaking about witnessing the shootings, and the
profession of her friend's faith when asked if she believed in God, and
replying "Yes," seconds before being shot to death, Bohn feels
that the whole situation has made her a stronger person.

She will share her experience and how it has impacted her
life at St. John's Lutheran Church in Winsted Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m.

That fateful day

She was just a freshman in her first year at Columbine
High School in Littleton Colo. when on April 20, 1999, two students, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold, brought machine guns to school and shot and killed
12 students and one teacher.

"I had just gotten out of gym class and was headed
down towards the cafeteria to eat lunch with my girlfriends at the time,"
she said. "There were roughly 200 kids in there."

She next remembers seeing teacher David Sanders and a janitor
running through the cafeteria telling people to "get underneath the
tables and cover your heads."

"I remember his (Sanders) face ­ it was very,
very pale," she said. "We crawled under the tables and we started
giggling 'cause we thought it was a fire drill ­ we didn't know
what was going on."

About two minutes later, she heard a young man scream loudly,
"He has a gun, he has a gun ­ everybody run."

"By that time, there was already a mass of kids that
were running, and pushing, and shoving," she said. "I turned around
and looked in the direction everyone was running from, and I couldn't see
Eric or Dylan. I couldn't see them or hear any gun shots, but people kept
saying, "Come on, we gotta get out of here."

She grabbed her friend's hand and began running with the
crowd. They started running up towards the main level of the school and
eventually reached the top step.

"A teacher opened her door and scolded us, asking
us what was going on, and why everyone was yelling," she said. "Just
after that, the first shot went off, it was really quick, and everyone froze.

"I turned around and looked back down in the cafeteria,
and everyone down there stopped and looked back at us like "What was
going on?"

"It was a definite machine gun," she said. "It
was very rapid. We kept running and it was like slow motion. Everything
around me was blurry and not even a reality. I could tell that they were
coming from behind me from the way that it was echoing."

One thing that was found out later was that Sanders had
been wounded outside, but came back inside to warn the students in the cafeteria.

"He was wounded in the shoulder, and he basically
bled to death in one of the science classrooms," she said. "He's
a hero ­ he basically saved all of our lives."

Bohn made it outside of the building where she saw a policeman
with his gun drawn. The officer was asking for information, and he told
the group of students to keep running and to not look back.

Profession of faith

It wasn't until after she was safely outside the building
that she learned the fate of her close friend Rachel Smith.

"She was a modern day martyr ­ she died for
her faith," Bohn said. "Eric and Dylan knew very well that she
was a Christian. She was the first one to die that day."

Smith was outside of the cafeteria eating lunch when she
was wounded in the leg.

"She started to stumble around, trying to get away,
and they both came up to her and lifted her up by her hair, literally.

"They put the gun to her head and said, 'Do you still
believe in God this moment, Rachel?' and she said 'yes.'"

It is known that this took place because a young man that
was laying next to her heard it. He is paralyzed today from the waist down
because of injuries sustained that day.

Asking why

"The biggest mystery is what was their motive,"
Bohn said. "A girlfriend of mine was in the library under a table and
she saw Eric. She looked into his eyes and she said 'it was like he wasn't
even there, it was like he was being possessed.

"You know how they say your eyes are the window to
your soul ­ it was like he had no soul."

Sharing her message

Bohn was born in Wisconsin and raised in a Christian family.
She moved from her home state of Wisconsin to Colorado in 1990.

"I never really had a relationship with Christ ­ it
was more like we just did this 'cause that's what the family did. After
this all happened, I realized that if I died that day, I would go to heaven,
but it made me realize that life was short and that I had to serve God each
and every day."

"I was home-schooled from first grade all the way
to my freshman year in high school," Bohn said. "So, my first
year in a public school was the year that the tragedy happened."

She finished out her high-school years at Columbine, graduating
in spring of 2002, and becoming engaged on the last day of her senior year
to her husband Brent, who is currently the youth pastor at Riverside Assembly
of God Church in Hutchinson. She is planning on attending college next year.

Bohn has traveled the country coast to coast since she
was 14, talking about that day and how it has affected her.

"I began speaking about it about a month after, and
that's a miracle in itself that I was able to pull myself together to do
that ­ it was only by the grace of God," she said.

There were times she was gone every weekend of a month
which, at times, affected her studies.

She has since spoken to more than 10,000 youth. She also
attended the memorials which took place on the one and two-year anniversaries
of the shootings.

This year is the first year that she will be unable to
attend, because it is on Easter Sunday.

"The very first one was inside the school ­ very,
very emotional and touching," she said. The next two took place in
the park near the school.

"So much positive has come out of it," she said.
"It took me deciding that I was going to make a positive situation
out of a horrible thing. There are so many kids that are not right in their
mind because of it."

"You're not guaranteed a tomorrow," she said.
"I wake up every day just thankful for another day to serve my Lord,
and one more day to basically pay Satan back for what he did.

"What Satan intended for evil, God did turn around
for good."

The message that Bohn hopes to share with Winsted and the
surrounding area is that no matter what situation you are in, or no matter
how low you are, God can reach down and pick you up.